Courthouse roof replacement lined up

The form of Lady Justice on top of he Augusta County Courthouse in Staunton on Friday. The form of Lady Justice on top ...more

The form of Lady Justice on top of he Augusta County Courthouse in Staunton on Friday. The form of Lady Justice on top of he Augusta County Courthouse located in downtown Staunton. Photograph taken on Friday, Jan. 16, 2015.

VERONA - The Augusta County Courthouse will have its roof replaced this spring after the board of supervisors voted to accept a bid from a contractor for the work Wednesday night at the board's first regular meeting of 2018.

The scheduled roof replacement comes amid the uncertain future for the building as a whole. New 2018 chairman of the board Gerald Garber said the Courthouse Committee, comprised of he and supervisor Terry Kelley that was formed in May 2017 to study their options for the project moving forward, is continuing to meet but that he expects that "very soon" it will be "folded into the full board."

The supervisors did not further discuss the outlook for the courthouse in 2018 beyond the roof replacement.

The board approved a budget just shy of $275,000 for the roof work, factoring in a 10 percent contingency — county administrator Tim Fitzgerald expects it to cost closer to $250,000, he said. The money for the project will come from the capital improvement fund in the budget.

That was the more expensive upfront of two options the board had on the table, but looks to save the county money in the long run.

The supervisors opted to go with the more expensive copper roof, as recommended by county staff, over a metal roof, which had an installation cost of $175,000. The metal roof would have required repainting however, work that Fitzgerald said typically costs $50,000 to $60,000 each time it's required. The copper roof is expected to last 100 years and need much less maintenance, he said.

Fitzgerald said the county checked with Staunton and the city was ok with the appearance of either a copper or metal roof in its historic downtown.

When it first came out in September that the board intended to replace the roof, supervisor Marshall Pattie said even though the county had not laid out a plan for the courthouse's future, that this was work the board agreed the building needs, as they've "seen a few leaks" in the roof.

At that November meeting, now former board chairman Tracy Pyles expressed opposition to replacing the roof altogether — "I’m uncomfortable with it because we don’t know if it’s going to be there," he said of the courthouse and its location in downtown Staunton.

“Why would we invest in another roof down there when that’s going to be a museum?" he said at that meeting.

But with a new-look 2018 board in the first regular meeting since Pyles's departure, the supervisors showed no reservation for the roof replacement and approved it in an unanimous vote.